A Merseyside firm has won a new £25m contract to provide "vital" survival equipment for pilots and sailors in the Armed Forces.
Birkenhead-based Survitec Group will provide the RAF with life-saving kit under the new five-year deal.
Work will predominantly take place at the company’s Birkenhead and Gosport sites, as well further work at the Aberdeen and Dunmurry centres, supporting 50 UK jobs in total.
The contract will see the RAF being supplied with immersion protection garments such as life rafts and life preservers, and high-G kit such as 'anti-gravity trousers'. Anti-G clothing will ensure pilots can cope with the high levels of acceleration they experience when flying agile fast jets, such as F-35, Typhoon and Hawk aircraft.
Kit for the Royal Navy will include multi-person life rafts and associated spares provision, as well as a rapid turnaround life raft servicing programme which facilitates the removal and return of life rafts to the vessel within 15 days.
Survitec CEO for aerospace and defence, Martin Whittaker, said: “I am delighted we have concluded this landmark agreement with DE&S to supply our armed forces with their much-needed safety equipment.
"The Survitec Group has been a trusted supplier for the UK Armed Forces for over 30 years and is committed to providing innovation for its future requirements.”
The Ministry of Defence said the contract will also ensure RAF and Navy personnel will be able to order on demand a wide range of sailor and aircrew personal protection and survival equipment as and when they need it.
Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the procurement arm of the Ministry of Defence, negotiated the new contract which offers better value for money as it combines five contracts into one, leading to £5m of efficiency savings over the life of the contract.
Director Air Support at DE&S, Richard Murray, said: “This new, improved contract with Survitec will ensure that high-quality, life-saving equipment is available when it is most needed.
"The team has worked hard to ensure it delivers value for the taxpayer while providing equipment at the forefront of the latest technology. I look forward to our ongoing partnership with Survitec to continue to deliver the very best equipment to our armed forces.”
